Kate Middleton and Prince William Break Royal Christmas Tradition

December 23, 2012 18:22:23 GMT

The couple received consent from Williams' grandparents, the Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, to spend the festivities with the Middletons.

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Pregnant princess Kate Middleton and her husband Prince William will spend this Christmas with her family, breaking the tradition of staying at Queen Elizabeth's country estate at Sandringham. The couple will join Kate's parents, Carole and Michael Middleton, at their home in the village of Bucklebury.

"The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge will Spend Christmas Day privately with the Middleton family," a spokesman for St. James' Palace said on Saturday, December 22. Their decision has been given a nod of approval from the Queen herself and her husband Philip. However, the couple is still expected to visit the monarch for part of the holiday.

Kate's sister Pippa Middleton has shared in the most recent edition of Britain's Spectator magazine of how Christmas is spent in their family. "The Middletons' Christmas should be blissfully calm. We're good at keeping each other's spirits up," she wrote, adding her father would top it off with costumes. "He buys a new costume each year and typically gets a bit carried away - a couple of Christmases ago, he appeared in an inflatable sumo outfit," she recalled.

Pippa also revealed in her book "Celebrate" how she and her siblings would make their own Christmas cards. "When I was a child, my December weekends were spent making cards, decorating the tree, hanging the wreath and preparing brandy butter and peppermint creams," she wrote.